President Joe Biden speaks this Thursday at a press conference in Madrid. (Susan Walsh / AP)
President Biden said Thursday he supported an exception to the 60-vote threshold needed to advance legislation in the Senate to codify abortion rights and privacy following the Supreme Court ruling overturning the historic Roe v. .
“I think we need to codify Roe v. Wade into law. And the way to do that is to make sure Congress votes to do that. And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like the right to vote, it should be , we offer an exception to this. The exception: the filibuster’s necessary exception for this action to deal with the Supreme Court’s decision, “Biden told reporters at a news conference in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday.
Moments later, pressured to clarify that he was open to changing the obstruction rules for these issues, Biden said, “Right to privacy, not just abortion rights, but abortion rights.” .
The codification of Roe v. Wade requires 60 votes in the Senate, which it currently does not have, unless the obstruction rules are amended to require a simple majority. Leading moderate Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have expressed opposition to changing the obstruction rules. Manchin, however, is open to legislatively codifying Roe against Wade.
Biden also said he would meet with governors on Friday to receive their comments and would have “announcements to make then.”
“The first and most important thing we need to do is make clear how outrageous this decision was and to what extent it affects not only women’s right to choose, which is a critical and critical piece, but also privacy in privacy, in general.And so I will talk to the governors about what actions they think I should take as well.But the most important thing to be clear: we need to change, I think we need to codify Roe v Wade in the law “, he said.
More context: there has been no indication that these two senators, Manchin and Sinema, have or will change positions.
But Biden’s call coincides with the White House’s efforts to increase urgency ahead of the midterm elections, and comes as National Democrats have increasingly raised concerns that the Biden administration is not doing enough to address and fight the decision of the Supreme Court. .
Despite the numbers of marked polls and the poor prospects of keeping the Democratic majority in the House, the White House sees a way to win seats in the Senate to increase its narrow majority.
Maintaining their current seats and adding at least two new Democratic senators could, in theory, pave the way for securing votes for a change in Senate rules.